Tuesday 7th April 2020
We know how important pollinators are for farmers, in fact they’re an integral part of growing food for people and for cows. We’ve had hives in the valley for a while now and our bees are very much seen as VIPs on the farm!
We love our bees so much that we want to share the love, so we’ve decided to partner up with Buckley’s Bees to build and manage 10 new beehives and colonies across a number of British organic dairy farms. A father and daughter team based in Cheshire, Buckley’s Bees Beekeepers are registered BBKA members and have been breeding and caring for British Bees for over 50 years, so we know they share our passion for all things bee!
With reductions in wildflower meadows and increased urbanisation, there are now just 270,000 active hives in the UK compared with around 1,000,000 hives in 1900! Over the next two years we hope to provide homes for hundreds of thousands of new British honey bees.
Our partnership with Buckley’s Bees will mean that these hives and bee colonies are looked after and managed throughout the year according to the BBKA and Defra standards, with regular inspections to check on their homes and manage the colony for honey production. One day we may even be able to use some of the honey they produce in our products!
Currently our queen bees are building their colonies and are being looked after by Emma at Buckley’s Bees in their designated apiary in Cheshire. They will be moved to 10 hives across 5 organic dairy farms in the UK as soon as travel restrictions are lifted – homing thousands of new bees over the next year!
Over the coming months, we’ll be updating you with news of our colonies so you can meet our new bees and find out more about the amazing work they do on the farm!
How wonderful!
I would love to, ahem.. ‘bee’ updated on the bees.
I wonder also, if you could provide links to bee experts, bee care and bee housing, as well as updates to the Yeovalley bees?
Buzzing brilliant news! Bring on the bees.
Rural dwellers should be encouraged to convince Parish & Town Councils to set aside sections of parklands in order that bee keepers can situate hives to maximise availability of blossoming trees & flowering shrubs. Schools to be encouraged to get involved and communities to share/buy the honey.
V good re looking after our bees so thank you.
Also on breakfast BBC1 TV programme today they talked about the threat of Hornet bees so please keep a look out for them and report any you see not sure who to but Buckley’s Bees will no I expect. Take care. The Sweet 🍬 family of Corsham
So glad to see British bees in these hives. Too many countries have imported foreign bees for pollination to the detriment of their own native bee populations. Great work.
🐝❤️ 🙃
Great news but don’t forget about the native solitary bees too. They need nest sites – sandy soil banks facing south or bee nest houses with tubes of various sizes.
Great idea, look forward to the bees arriving.
Well done we need the bees
Wonderful for doing this, I have planted a number of plants in an attempt to aid bees as much as possible. Thank you.